Anything else I should try before giving up?

Y

yossarianpickwick

n00b
Joined
Mar 19, 2005
Messages
34
Hi all,

I bought a Connect 3d X1800XT a few months ago. It's been working fine and I've enjoyed the boost from my previous card but recently, I've started to get random problems.

Occassionally the monitor will completely switch off - with no warning. Music in a game continues.

I patched drivers and hoped for the best.

Now, I can't even load windows without the machine resetting. If I press F8 during load and choose 'vga mode' it loads fine and I can use the PC. If I uninstall the drivers and don't let windows 'install new hardware' the machine runs fine.

So i'm sure it's the card that's screwed.

I don't have a spare PCIE system to put in in to test.

Anything you fine folks reckon I should try before I contact the company I bought it for for a replacement / repair?
 
Asus P5GD2 Mobo
2.5gb ram
p4 3.2ghz
Connect 3D Radeon X1800XT
Soundblaster Audigy 2
couple of disks
generic dvd writer
nothing else notable
 
Ok, 550W but that doesn't mean it has enough stable juice on the +12V rail. I've seen cheap 500W PSUs that were not even up to par to a good 250W PSU in that regard.

Can you check which model PSU you have? I'm always surprised when i see how many people have problems with their rigs and it boils down to a powersupply not being able to support your expensive rig. It's one of the most important components in the system.
 
My previous GPU was an x600 - but I've been using the new one for a few months. The problems have only started recently.
 
First of all, the website doesn't list the specs for the PSU, which is bad.

What i did see is this though:

"Including 6-pin PCI Express VGA connector, meets high-end PCIe 150W requirement"

150W is not much. Actually it's way too low for a high end card nowadays. I think the 1900XTX takes almost 300W alone. The 1900XT is close to 280W and i would think the X1800XT is somewhere around there as well (~250W).

That might be the problem right there.
 
Q-tec is on this list of power supplies to avoid.
I had a bad Aspire psu that caused freeze ups and would even shut the computer down. After buying an Enermax all the problems stopped.

Link to power supplies to avoid:
BAD PSU's
Link to recommended psu's:
GOOD PSU's
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

Suspecting you may be right about the power, I first tried another random power supply (450 watt, even less branding than my other psu), this didn't change anything - can boot up, as soon as windows loads, the monitor switches off. after about 30 seconds, the pc reboots.

if i load in safe mode or vga mode, it runs fine.

I figure at this point that I do in fact need to juice up my psu, so I put the original 550 one in and swap my x1800xt for my previous x600 which I ran with for over a year.

Strange thing is the effect is still happenning. I am able to run windows only in 'driverless' mode either vga/safe mode or with the drivers uninstalled.

This is strange and perhaps indicates a non-psu problem, since I have presumabbly dropped my drain quite a bit by going to the older card (that I ran in this box for ages with no problems)
 
If that is the case, it sounds more like a hosed windows installation.

Do you have a spare drive to install windows XP on and see if it still happens?
 
can you read the amperage ratings off the side label on that PSU?

It might not be able to power the CPU. P4's draw a LOT of power off the 12v.
 
I think its a software problem. I think a reformat will most likely fix the problem. Only one way to find out... :(
 
could be, could not be. It could even be your processor (although this is very unlikely)... I have a 3.0E that posts, starts booting windows and just freezes up. Every other chip I tested that day booted windows up just fine.
 
Thanks for the help everyone.

I take on board advice re: power supplies.

The problem in my case seems to have been a hosed windows install as suggested above.

I reinstalled, patched etc and had a 6 hour Civ 4 session yesterday. It seems that the system is working fine just now (even if I DO have to no reinstall all the software to get the box up to scratch).

Thanks again for your advice.

David
 
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